A 1982 double album whose title track imagines dancing through the end of the millennium (1982)
1999 — the record that broke him beyond the R&B audience.
Popular music · Pop
Prince
1958–2016 · American
Minneapolis sound — funk, rock and pop, Warner Bros. and Paisley Park
Prince Rogers Nelson was a one-man studio who played almost every instrument on his early records and invented the Minneapolis sound, a spare, synth-heavy funk with rock guitar on top. Purple Rain made him a global star in 1984; he then fought a long and public war with Warner Bros. over ownership of his recordings, changing his name to an unpronounceable symbol in the process. He wrote hits for other artists under pseudonyms, released music at a furious rate, and died of an accidental fentanyl overdose at his Paisley Park complex in 2016.
How to spot them
- ▸The Minneapolis sound: Linn drum machine, cold synths, falsetto, screaming guitar
- ▸Purple; the Love Symbol; Paisley Park in Chanhassen, Minnesota; the backing bands The Revolution and The New Power Generation
- ▸Multi-instrumentalist — he played 27 instruments on his 1978 debut
- ▸The word SLAVE written on his cheek during the Warner Bros. dispute
Songs & albums
A 1984 film and soundtrack about a Minneapolis club musician known as The Kid (1984)
Purple Rain — the album spent 24 weeks at US number one.
A 1986 song he gave away to a Los Angeles girl group under the pseudonym Christopher (1986)
"Manic Monday", a hit for The Bangles.
A song he wrote for a side project in 1985 that became a global number one for an Irish singer five years later (1985)
"Nothing Compares 2 U", written for The Family and made famous by Sinéad O'Connor in 1990.
A 1987 double album salvaged from an abandoned triple record and an alter ego called Camille (1987)
Sign o' the Times, widely regarded as his masterpiece.
A 1989 soundtrack album for a Tim Burton superhero film (1989)
Batman — including "Batdance", a US number one.
A 2007 American football halftime show performed in torrential rain in Miami (2007)
Super Bowl XLI — often called the greatest halftime show ever staged.
A 2004 Hall of Fame tribute in which he took an unannounced solo on a Beatles song (2004)
"While My Guitar Gently Weeps", at George Harrison's induction.
Quick-fire facts
- •Born Prince Rogers Nelson on 7 June 1958 in Minneapolis; his father's jazz stage name was Prince Rogers
- •He played all 27 instruments on his 1978 debut album For You
- •Purple Rain won the 1985 Academy Award for Best Original Song Score — the last year that category was awarded
- •His song "Darling Nikki" prompted Tipper Gore to form the Parents Music Resource Center, which led to the 'Parental Advisory' sticker
- •In 1993 he changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol and was referred to as 'The Artist Formerly Known as Prince'; he resumed the name Prince in 2000
- •He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2004 by OutKast and Alicia Keys, in his first year of eligibility
- •He won seven competitive Grammy Awards, an Oscar and a Golden Globe
- •He died on 21 April 2016 at Paisley Park, aged 57, of an accidental fentanyl overdose
- •He was a Jehovah's Witness from 2001, and reportedly went door to door in Minnesota
Drill it — 8 cards
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Sources
- Rock & Roll Hall of Fame — Prince — Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee
- Alan Light — Let's Go Crazy: Prince and the Making of Purple Rain